45/365 Empire State of Mind

I didn’t write yesterday. I have officially failed at the 365 project. I know all twenty of you who have subscribed to this blog are severely disappointed, but we must move forward. In all seriousness it was weird not writing for the day. They say it takes thirty days to form a habit and I pushed past that point and arrived at day forty-five before not being able to fulfill my ambitious goal. But as my day began at 6 AM and did not end until past the midnight mark I think I can let myself off the hook for this one.

As you may have found out from my earlier post, The Human Noise We Make, my family is in town for the week. My uncle, aunt and cousins haven’t been to my neck of the woods in five years, and so we have been filling our days with excursions and of course lots of laughing and alcohol. Yesterday we ventured to the Big Apple and I didn’t realize until about half way through the day that my aunt and two cousins had never been before.

I’ve always had a love, hate relationship with New York that usually tips more to the love side. When I was growing up I had many different dreams, but I always imagined that one day I would move to New York. Maybe it had something to do with television and movies glorifying it as the “greatest city in the world”, but it seemed that moving to this urban jungle equaled success or that I would have some how “made it.”

Just as my dreams have changed so have my views on NYC. Between the people, the noise, and the crazy price of rent I no longer idealize living there. I’ve had the privilege of traveling all over the world and even though I don’t idealize the concept of “making it” there is still something special about the city of over 8 million people. I describe it as an energy and though I know that makes me sound lame that’s what I think. I would describe it as a tangible energy that can be felt when walking the streets.

Standing in the middle of Times Square may be a tourist trap but as I was sitting on the red steps with my family, who were experiencing it for the first time, I felt a little piece of that familiar dream float back to me. Sharing a city that I have visited many times with family made me look at the city through the lens of someone who was seeing it for the first time.

I may still end up there. No way to really tell, but as I road back on the train home with everyone in tow I could feel myself slip into that happy delirium after spending a day exploring. In short, blame New York City for why I didn’t write yesterday. Now of course I promised to write for 365 days and that’s what I intend to do so now I will extend the year to one day more.